The Hilarious Adventures of Traveling in Japan

(Declaimer: For privacy purposes, names have been changed in this post.)

Living in a state of suspension, I’ve been busying myself with everything blog-related, which means living out my travel fantasies through others. But hey, I’ve traveled too! Why not share some of my hilarious and embarrassing experiences with the world? So, without further ado, this is the time I traveled to Japan and…

When’s the wedding?

This was the first trip that my partner and I took to Japan together. Before this, I always traveled with my parents to visit my family, so it was the perfect opportunity for me to navigate Japan with my beginning to intermediate level Japanese skills. It was my responsibility to get us to each destination since my partner had little to no Japanese vocabulary under his belt.

First, we started off in Tokyo, which was an absolute dream. Overcrowded trains, cafes with indescribable atmosphere, so many cat cafes, restaurants in smokey basements, and arcades galore.

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Then it came time to go from city life to the rural community of my dad’s hometown up North, 4-6 hours away from Tokyo by train. My aunt picked us up from the train station and brought us back to my grandparent’s home. This is where the real story begins…

Now, maybe it’s uncommon for two young people to travel overseas without being married, but we soon realized that we were in store for a wild ride. As I was catching my grandma up on my life, my aunt, bubbling over with excitement, announced, “And this is Cyrus, Harumi’s fiance!”

Cyrus tightened his grip around my hand and leaned in, “Ummm… This is the first I’m hearing of this.” I looked at him, just as shocked, “Yeah, same here.”

After hearing the startling news, my grandma glanced in my direction, “When’s the wedding? When’s the wedding?” I had to make something up, but I figured there was no harm in bringing a little joy to her. What does it matter? She has dementia. She’s not going to remember anyway, right?

Congratulations

The next morning, we got up early and joined my aunt for Radio Taiso in the park. We were asked to introduce ourselves in front of a group of 15-20 senior citizens. I did so effortless and just as I went to introduce Cyrus, my aunt jumped in, “And this is Cyrus, Harumi’s fiance!”

This news was met by a roar of applause and multiple people yelling out, “Omedetou gozaimasu!” Which translates to congratulations.

Once again, Cyrus tightened his grasp around mine. “Ummm. We can’t lie to all these old people.” I shrugged, “Well, I don’t know what else to do right now!” And the exercised commenced.

3, 2, 1 We’re Live

As if the news couldn’t spread more quickly, my aunt decided to surprise us by booking an appointment for us to speak live at the local radio station. I mean, I took a communications class in college, but nothing could prepare me for this!

10 minutes before going live, we went over the questions that I was going to be asked. Once the rehearsal completed, we got settled, tested our mics, and moments before recording, my aunt caught a “typo” in the script. She leaned over to the radio host, “Oh, could you cross out boyfriend? He’s her fiance.”

Cyrus hissed in my ear, “This has gone way too far!”

To which I hissed back, “We’re literally going live in 2 seconds. I can’t do anything!”

The show went on and more people learned about this strange engagement.

You thought that was it? Nah, there’s more

After the exercise and radio events, my partner and I realized that this sitcom was becoming our new reality, jokingly, we began calling each other hubby and my dear. Now, this is when things started to pick up because **surprise, surprise** a typhoon was headed towards Japan. (Check out The Hilarious Adventures of Japan Pt. 2)

Since the typhoon was on its way, our dinner reservation at the local sushi restaurant was canceled. Surprisingly, the staff still created our order and since it was meant to be a larger dinner gathering, my aunt decided that we should deliver the meals to the other families ourselves.

So we drove over to each home as it got dark and started to downpour. The charade continued as followed:

“And this is Cyrus, Harumi’s fiance!” More clapping, more congratulations, some hugging, but here’s the golden ticket and the most uncomfortable moment for my partner and me. Each family handed us an envelope of money for our “wedding.” Hesitantly, I took the money.

Now, in Japanese culture, it is an honor to get money. You absolutely cannot give that back without completely disrespecting the giving hand.

After each encounter, I was at a loss for words. Cyrus was at a loss for words. All we could do was roll with it. I guess we have to get married now?

The Time I traveled to Japan…

And that is the story of how my partner and I unintentionally got engaged. Although it was uncomfortable at the time, it has become one of the most hilarious and memorable experiences of our trip.

Have you traveled to Japan? What was your experience? If you have any funny travel stories, please feel free to share them down below!

Good luck on your journey,

Harumi